Longer trial period sought for new bus route

Darryll McCall, Director of Operations for the Wachusett Regional School District, attended the Oct. 1 Rutland selectmen’s meeting to ask that buses revert back to the original schedule of leaving Naquag School via Route 122.

That request was met with opposition from the board.

“We asked you people [school administrators] several times to sit and talk with us and were ignored, ignored and ignored,” said select board chairman Leroy “Skip” Clark. “I think we should stick with the plan we [selectmen] put in place.”

Everyone did agree that having a traffic light at the intersection of Route 122A and Maple Street would help alleviate problems when buses leave Naquag School in the afternoon

“I’ll apologize on behalf of the district for not responding,” said McCall. “It was out of my hands. I would have done something different.”

McCall said when he was principal at Central Tree, there was only one way out of the school lot. “The fact this access road is in place is very beneficial,” he added.

The problem is that both Naquag and Glenwood schools use the same buses and the district is running into a time issue, said McCall. It takes 10 more minutes for the buses to get to Glenwood and the district is trying to reduce the amount of time the kids are on the buses, he said.

“We want to go back to the old schedule,’’ he said. That would send buses leaving Naquag through Route 122A.

“We’ve been talking about this for over a year,” said selectman Sheila Dibb. “We set meetings with the district, and they were canceled. It seemed like the district didn’t want to be part of the solution. I appreciate you’re here now, but it’s too bad you weren’t here before.”

Contributing to the traffic issue are vehicles that are lined up on Route 122A in the afternoon driven by parents who are picking up their children, said Dibb.

The challenge is getting onto Main Street from Maple Avenue, Dibb said. She said she would like to see the plan selectmen set remain in place a bit longer.

At their Sept. 17 meeting, selectmen agreed to have a police officer posted at Maple Avenue to help alleviate traffic problems for buses.

Stopping traffic and letting the buses out would be helpful, said McCall, as would prohibiting parents from parking on Route 122A. “If there was a way to have an officer in both places it would help,” he said.

Police Chief Donald Haapakoski said that 10,000 cars a day travel on Route 122A.

Having a traffic light would help, Clark said.

McCall said he’d be happy to talk with someone at the state highway department about a light.

“The select board is interested in trying to get DOT to put in a traffic light,” said selectman Joe Becker. The request would be more appropriate coming from the town than the school district, he said.